February, 17 2011, 08:34pm EDT
House Votes to Stop FCC from Enforcing Net Neutrality; Punishes Public Servant
WASHINGTON
On Thursday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve a pair of amendments to a massive bill that would slash the federal budget. One amendment, introduced by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing rules it enacted in December to protect Internet users from discrimination online.
The other amendment, put forward by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), would cut off the salary of Mark Lloyd, the agency's chief diversity officer. Lloyd works in the FCC's Office of the General Counsel to help the agency expand media opportunities for women, people of color, small businesses and those living in rural areas.
Craig Aaron, managing director of Free Press Action Fund, made the following statement:
"The message from the new House leadership is clear: Unchecked corporate power and rampant discrimination are their priorities. The amendments passed tonight are an outrageous overreach. The anti-Net Neutrality measure would leave Internet users without any recourse if their phone or cable company decided to block their access to Web sites or applications for any reason -- because they don't like someone's political views, because they don't want any real competition or, well, just because.
"Mark Lloyd, a respected civil rights activist and historian, is the victim of a Fox News-fueled conspiracy theory that has no basis in reality. For the House of Representatives to target a public servant for abuse based on the incoherent ranting of Glenn Beck is appalling and absurd. Anyone who believes the media should strive to represent the diversity of this country should be nauseated by this disgraceful attack.
"The Senate and President Obama should reject this bill and these amendments out of hand. We need forward-looking policies and serious policymakers to create jobs, spur innovation and help us compete with the rest of the world. We don't need cheap political stunts and more giveaways to the biggest and most powerful corporations."
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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